Food and Nutrition Assistance Research Database

The RIDGE Program summarizes research findings of projects that were awarded 1-year grants through its partner institutions. All projects were conducted under research grants from ERS, and the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA. For more information about publications or other project outputs for a specific RIDGE study, contact the investigator or research center that awarded the grant. For a customized list of RIDGE projects and summaries, search by keyword(s), project, research center, investigator, or year:

Project:Recency of Migration and Legal Status Effects on Food Expenditures and Child Well-Being

Recent years have witnessed growing debate about the
integration prospects of U.S. immigrants. Widespread
attention has focused on the costs of immigration,
especially in cities that suffered from the onset of a
deep recession in the late 1980’s. Since that time,
public concern about immigrants in the U.S. economy
has led to welfare reform that limited public assistance
to legal immigrants who, some studies reported,
imposed costs to U.S. taxpayers through their use of
educational and welfare services. Steady growth in
undocumented migration has accompanied these
changes. By the end of the 1980’s, estimates suggested
a gross inflow of 3.8 million persons from Mexico
alone, which represented a substantial increase from
the estimated 99,000 illegal Mexican immigrants of
two decades earlier.

Recent research has accumulated considerable evidence
about the challenges that confront individuals
with uncertain legal status in U.S. society.
Undocumented households tend to be poor, often living
below established poverty thresholds. Like other
immigrants, those without documents are especially
likely to be medically underserved, uninsured, and
relying on emergency medical care, which increases
the risks of preventable death. Many are ineligible or
afraid to use public service programs designed to help
poor families. Yet to date, primarily because of data
limitations, we know little about the effects of illegal
immigrant status on social behavior and well-being.

Kanaiaupuni and Donato address this gap with new
data from a longitudinal, binational project (Health
and Migration Survey) that surveys households in
Mexico and in the United States. The data from this
report come from a total of 262 households randomly
chosen in two migrant destination neighborhoods, one
in Houston and the other just north of San Diego.
They used these data to examine the health effects of
legal status, nativity, and recency of migration. The
authors focus their analysis on child health and food
security.

Kanaiaupuni and Donato use multivariate analysis to
predict household food expenditures, breastfeeding
behavior, children’s current illness (serious conditions
lasting at least 10 days), and mother-reported overall
health status of children. Their sample includes 232
children under 7 years old, all but 40 of whom are
U.S. citizens. They find children are much better off
if both parents have legal documents—they have more
food, higher household incomes, and better health status.
Children with at least one undocumented parent
suffer significant health costs—their chances of poor
health are between three and eight times higher than
children with legal parents. Their results also suggest
that the advantages conferred by legal status are insensitive
to time; net of legal status, children of recent
immigrants are no healthier than those whose parents
have lengthier U.S. exposure. The authors anticipate
future research that will explore the mechanisms that
contribute to these differences. To date, their findings
suggest that children living in illegal immigrant households
would benefit from targeted public health, food
assistance, and nutrition policies.